22 Oct 2002

Cleansing of foreign evils a `good thing'
By Eric Ellis, Kuta

ONE of Bali's foremost academics and cultural leaders says last week's Sari Club bombing was a "good thing" that would cleanse Bali of unwanted foreign influence.
"This is the punishment of God because we have not developed cultural tourism but we have brought in many things outside our Balinese culture," Luh Ketut Suryani said in an interview with The Australian.
"We now have prostitution, gambling, pedophilia, drugs, casino. These things are not Balinese. These things are brought in by foreigners. It disturbs our culture.
"It is good for us that Australians will not come to Bali for a few months or a year. Our people can go back to their land, to their paddy."
A teacher of pyschiatry at Denpasar's Udayana University, Professor Suryani is a towering figure among Indonesian scholars and is regarded by foreign academics as one of the world's leading experts on Balinese Hindu culture.
She has rankled Australian diplomats and resident expatriates by writing an opinion article in the Indonesian-language Bali Post newspaper that was interpreted by some as anti-Australian and insensitive, coming so soon after the blasts.
But Professor Suryani's comments cannot be dismissed as those of a nationalist firebrand. She speaks for a growing lobby of Balinese nationalists who want to limit the mass-market tourism that has led to the rise of raffish boom towns such as Kuta.
An influential adviser to authorities in Denpasar and Jakarta, she also has proposed to local community leaders to leave the bomb site on Jalan Legian untouched, as a memorial to the evils of tourism. Professor Suryani said it was not good that people died, but it was a timely reminder of how Bali had gone out of control and how mass tourism had affected its Hindu culture.
"This is to remind us of what we have become, and not be like it in the future. I am very sorry (about the bombing) but we have to try and see the other side," she said. "Bali will learn from this. I am not against tourism, but many Balinese now think the dollar is more important than maintaining our culture.
"I still agree with tourism but not like now, not mass tourism. Better we serve 10 tourists, expensive and good quality, than we serve 100 mass-market tourists on small income."
Bali could be a model for other areas of Indonesia, which had been beset by ethnic and religious wars, to resolve issues peacefully, she said.
"I still welcome foreign tourists. I welcome people who love Balinese culture."